The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 is slated to be held in Boao, Hainan on April 8-11. At the press conference on the BFA preparations held on January 25 in Beijing, ZHOU Wenzhong, Secretary General of BFA.

Political and Economic News

The World Bank stated that the global economy is forecast to grow 3.1% in 2018, slightly higher than the 3% in the previous year and the best in seven years. The year 2018 will be the first time since the financial crisis that the global economy will approach or reach full growth potential.

At the Davos Forum in Switzerland, the IMF announced that the latest forecast for global economic growth this year was 3.9%, 0.2 percentage point higher than the figure forecast in October last year; and forecast that the global economic growth rate in 2019 will also reach 3.9%.

Moody's Investors Service published the “Outlook for Credit Ratings of Sovereign States and Regions in Asia-Pacific 2018” on the 10th day that favorable economic growth balances high leverage and stabilizes the outlook for sovereign countries and regions in Asia-Pacific in 2018.

In the “Global Risks Report 2018” released on January 17th, World Economic Forum states that the economy enjoys a strong momentum of growth in 2018 and the global risks will intensify, among which the environmental risk comes out top.

In 2017, mergers and acquisitions by Chinese enterprises seem to have slacked off. According to the latest Chinese Enterprises M&A Market Review 2017 and Outlook 2018 released by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) jointly released by Adecco Group and the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on the 23rd day.

Nielsen, a world-leading marketing and consumer information provider, released its report in Beijing on February 6. The report shows that after a sustained rise in three quarters, China’s consumer confidence index continued to remain at a historically high level of 114 points in the fourth quarter of 2017.

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On January 31, the Bank of China released the “White Paper on RMB Internationalization – RMB in the Two-way Opening-up of Financial Markets” in 2017. This is the fifth consecutive year that the Bank of China has been investigating the participation of global customers in internationalization of RMB.

In 2017, the CEFC Shanghai Charity Fund “Fluorescent Teacher Support” project was extended to 14 township primary and secondary schools in Jianou City, Fujian Province in addition to its presence in one district and nine counties in Gansu Province and Zhaotong City in Yunnan Province.